November 27th, 2007
IBM's push into medical services
We’ve posted a whitepaper from IBM touting their engineering expertise to hospitals.
Simple site registration leads you to the PDF file. The gist is that IBM can link all those new imaging devices you’re getting to your hospital network through its Engineering & Technology Services unit.
It’s a fine opportunity for those with hospital networks and system integration headaches. Radiology gets a nifty new scanner and you need help to make those files usable by other departments. IBM can help.
But it also illustrates the difficulties hospitals face in dealing with both new equipment purchases and computerized charting. If you hadn’t budgeted for this before buying the new gear the bill may be hard to swallow, no matter how reasonable.
I have talked to many doctors since starting this blog who complain that the gear they want to get doesn’t work with the gear they have, so they don’t get it.
The system integration process thus becomes a barrier to entry, even if the cost of the actual scanner is relatively modest.
Why don’t you post your favorite system integration nightmare below and we’ll pass it on?
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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